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Tele-Film Developments<br />
QUT on the coast two weeks ago the<br />
National Ass'n of Broadcasters met in<br />
Los Angeles and the Society of M. P. Engineers<br />
met at Santa Monica. The timing<br />
was no coincidence: it was premeditated.<br />
Broadcasting engineers and motion picture<br />
engineers commuted back and forth<br />
to each other's meetings. Both gatherings<br />
heard a lot about television. David O.<br />
Selznick jumped on the television bandwagon<br />
while they were talking.<br />
The SMPE men heard warnings that if<br />
the picture industry did not make applications<br />
for more station licenses in a hurry<br />
it would find all the available channels<br />
gone when it finally got around to the idea.<br />
While this was going on Spyros P. Skouras<br />
informed 20th Century-Fox stockholders<br />
that he could vision the day when big<br />
stage shows as well as films would be sent<br />
over the air to hundreds of theatres simultaneously.<br />
These would be so good, he<br />
said, that they would eliminate competition<br />
from home receivers.<br />
If there are no air channels left, these<br />
programs will need coaxial cables.<br />
The uncertainties of the picture business<br />
about television bear a marked resemblance<br />
to the uncertainties of newspaper publishers<br />
when radio stations began to broadcast<br />
news and garner a large share of<br />
the advertising dollar—especially in medium-sized<br />
cities. After a period of bitter<br />
enmity the newspapers decided to go into<br />
the radio business. Newspapers now own<br />
627 radio stations. They are served by the<br />
AP, UP, INS, British UP, Canadian Press,<br />
Chicago Tribune Press Service, Press News<br />
'subsidiary of Canadian Press), Reuters<br />
and Transradio Press.<br />
It's big business—which explains the<br />
current rush of film newsreels to get onto<br />
the air with picture news for the rapidly<br />
spreading television stations.<br />
Here again the newspapers are joining in<br />
the rush. They have 11 television stations<br />
operating, 73 applications pending before<br />
the FCC and 23 construction permits<br />
granted.<br />
They are all ready to make deals with<br />
networks. They know network programs<br />
furnished to them will be better than local<br />
productions and less expensive. They have<br />
had both AM and FM air experience.<br />
Newspapers have fancy ways of avoiding<br />
the FCC five-section-to-a-company limitation.<br />
There are newspaper chains, too.<br />
Paramount is the only film company<br />
making aggressive television moves. It has<br />
two stations and four applications, and the<br />
FCC is splitting hairs over whether Paramount<br />
"controls" Du Mont. Three out of<br />
the four applications pending were filed<br />
fcy Paramount theatre affiliates. If a Paramount<br />
application is denied, the company<br />
may take the validity of this FCC ruling<br />
into court for a test.<br />
If it does there will be a disturbance.<br />
Some newspaper applic^ions are for station<br />
permits where the papers do not circulate.<br />
Some very small papers have made<br />
as many as three applications. It is obvious<br />
that the big networks will blossom<br />
out with "affiliated" stations in strategic<br />
spots and practically control many areas<br />
By JAMES M. JERAULD<br />
if the film business is held to the five-station<br />
rule and newspaper chains are not.<br />
Subsidies From USA<br />
pRANCE has renewed its efforts to impose<br />
a tax and playing time limitation<br />
on American films so that American film<br />
grosses will subsidize faltering production<br />
in that country. Sweden has now joined in<br />
a similar move, and Argentina has suspended<br />
all remittances of funds to the U.S.<br />
This keeps the leaders of the MPEA busy<br />
hopping from one place to another. When<br />
diplomacy breaks down they suspend film<br />
exports. Tills usually produces two results<br />
—a loud series of complaints from native<br />
exhibitors who see their investments<br />
jeopardized and a sudden realization on<br />
the part of government officials that they<br />
are cutting off the handsome income they<br />
collect from admission and other taxes.<br />
It is disconcerting and keeps the export<br />
market for films in a constant state of<br />
agitation, but it seems to be the only course<br />
until such time as these countries can resume<br />
accumulation of exchange.<br />
More Children's Shows<br />
^ITH 112 features added to the children's<br />
film library by the MPAA, some<br />
of the complaints of exhibitors ought to<br />
disappear. At the start there was a limited<br />
number of prints as well as a limited number<br />
of subjects. Some exhibitors displayed<br />
impatience when they found there was a<br />
waiting list.<br />
Under the new setup theatres will not be<br />
eligible for the new subjects until they have<br />
played 10 per cent of the old. Everybody<br />
agrees the shows have been very successful<br />
and have helped public relations in<br />
neighborhoods and smaller communities.<br />
with further additions to the program in<br />
prcspect at some future date, there is every<br />
indication the shows will be continued indefinitely<br />
and expanded into new areas.<br />
Charles C. PettiJohn<br />
^HE passing of Charlie Pettijohn removed<br />
a colorful figure from the industry. Before<br />
his retirement in 1942 from the MPPDA<br />
he exercised an enoiinous influence in<br />
shaping the destinies of that organization.<br />
As a matter of fact, he was one of its<br />
founders and many credit him with having<br />
induced Will H. Hays to leave President<br />
Harding's cabinet to take over the<br />
leadership of industry affairs.<br />
In recent years he had spent practically<br />
all his time at his Westchester home.<br />
Back to Supreme Court<br />
^HAT the industry antitrust case will<br />
probably go back to the supreme court<br />
after the lower court has decided what<br />
theatres will have to be given up by the<br />
major companies is made plain by Barney<br />
Balaban in a letter to Paramount stockholders.<br />
He says that it is impossible to predict<br />
what the course of the company will be<br />
in the new lower court trial, but mentions<br />
"further review in the supreme court."<br />
'Jock' Lawrence Given<br />
New Post With Rank<br />
NEW YORK—J. B. L. "Jock" Lawrence,<br />
vice-president in charge of public relations<br />
for the J. Arthur Rank<br />
Organization since<br />
1945, has been promoted<br />
to executive<br />
vice-president by Robert<br />
S. Benjamin, president<br />
of the American<br />
corporation.<br />
Lawrence is also a<br />
member of the board<br />
of directors of the<br />
Rank company, the<br />
others being J. Arthur<br />
Rank, chairman: John<br />
J. B. L. Lawrence Davis, vice-chairman:<br />
Benjamin, president: John Woolf, William J.<br />
Heineman and Ralph E. Reynolds. Lawrence<br />
was a colonel in the general staff overseas<br />
during the war, serving as chief public relations<br />
officer for Lord Mountbatten of<br />
Burma's commandos throughout 1942.<br />
Ben Wirth Elected Head<br />
Of WB Service Corp.<br />
NEW YORK—Ben Wirth has been elected<br />
president of Warner Bros. Service Corp., a<br />
subsidiary of Warner<br />
Bros. Pictures, Inc.,<br />
which supervises concessions<br />
in all of the<br />
company's theatres.<br />
Other officers of the<br />
Service Corp. are:<br />
Harold Rodner, vicepresident:<br />
Robert W.<br />
Perkins, secretary, and<br />
Samuel Carlisle, treasurer.<br />
Wirth, who was promoted<br />
to head the Ben Wirth<br />
Warner Bros, real estate department in Philadelphia<br />
in 1944, has been with the home office<br />
real estate department since 1930.<br />
Gael Sullivan to Speak<br />
At 111. Exhibitor Meet<br />
NEW YORK—Gael Sullivan, who takes over<br />
as executive director of TOA June 1, will<br />
make his first official appearance before a<br />
theatre group at the United Theatre Owners<br />
of Illinois meeting at the Kaskaskia hotel, La<br />
Salle, 111., Jmie 3 and 4.<br />
Sullivan will speak before the theatre owners<br />
of his home state at the invitation of<br />
Edward Zorn, president of the Illionis association.<br />
Herman M. Levy, general comisel<br />
of TOA, will also address the meeting to discuss<br />
the recent supreme court decision on the<br />
Paramount case as well as other matters of<br />
general exhibitor interest.<br />
RKO Names Arthur Elliott<br />
Calgary Branch Manager<br />
NEW YORK—Arthur Elliott, salesman in<br />
the RKO Montreal branch, has been promoted<br />
to branch manager at Calgary by<br />
Robert Mochrie, vice-president in charge of<br />
distribution.<br />
Elliott joined the Montreal branch in 1947<br />
as student salesman. He also has served In<br />
St. John, New Brunswick.<br />
26<br />
BOXOFFICE :<br />
: May<br />
29, 1948<br />
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